Keep Cool: 5 Foods That Lower Your Body Temperature

Sizzling summer temps can lead you to reach for the coldest food you can get your hands on (that is, if it hasn’t taken your appetite away completely). While that can sometimes work, the most-cooling foods are not necessarily the iciest ones. Turns out some food (like high-fat ice cream) can actually raise your body temperature by making you work harder to digest it. For the most-cooling foods, try these:

Salad greens

If ever there were a time for iceberg lettuce, this is it. Iceberg lettuce is 96 percent water. That’s about as high a water content as anything can have. Other greens are also hydrating and cooling, so dig into your favorites.

Tomatoes

Spin summer-ripe tomatoes into a cold gazpacho, or layer with burrata and basil for an amazing caprese salad. Either way, juicy tomatoes will help cool you down. An added bonus? They’re rich in lycopene, which is good for your skin.

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Cucumber on White

Photo by: Szemeno

Szemeno

Cucumber on White

Cucumbers

Rivaling iceberg lettuce in water content is the cucumber. This ultra-refreshing, crisp vegetable is perfect on its own — it’s a phenomenal snack sliced and sprinkled with salt — or turned into a refreshing agua fresca.

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Cherries

Cherries

Cherries

In Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medical system, sweet foods are considered cooling. Stick to naturally sweet foods, like cherries, melons, grapes and mangoes.

About one in three adults have high blood pressure. One step to improve or prevent high blood pressure is to lower your salt intake -- especially from the biggest source, processed foods. These days many manufacturer's offer "low-sodium" or "no salt-added" foods, but labels can be confusing. Here are some tips to keep in mind.